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A child rape victim successfully won an 18-month legal battle to name her rapist after a court issued a gagging order preventing her from being identified.
Declan Hannon (50) first raped the nine-year-old during a game of hide and seek when he was 17. He raped the boy three more times during the summer, around 1987 or 1989.
The woman, now in her 40s, testified six times in court before the offender was finally convicted and subsequently imprisoned for seven years.
He appeared to make a statement in 2013 and there were a series of trials that collapsed before Hannon of Ramsgate Village, Gorey, Co Wexford was convicted by a jury after a trial in Central Criminal Court in March 2019.
He had pleaded not guilty to four counts of rape and two counts of indecent assault in Co Wicklow between 1987 and 1989.
This is the first time that the full details of his sentencing hearing can be published in the Central Criminal Court in May 2019 due to a gagging order imposed by Judge Micheal White during the trial.
The order prevented the publication of both the victim and her abuser. In a ruling Monday, the Court of Appeal ruled that this order “was superfluous and should not have been entered.”
Judge White said he issued his order “at the request of the DPP and the complainant.”
Attorneys for the DPP appealed the gag order after the victim contacted them to say she wanted to waive her anonymity and have Hannon named. In response, Hannon submitted requests to the court in which the victim had no legal right to waive her anonymity.
Speaking outside of court in 2019, the victim said that the DPP never asked her at the sentencing hearing about her wishes and that she did not know that she had to address the issue of her anonymity.
A separate landmark decision preventing child victims of crime from being named means her name cannot be published, even though she indicated her desire for this to happen.
In her victim impact statement, the woman, now a married mother, said she had to think long and hard before coming forward when Gardaí approached her in 2013.
She said she had hidden the horror of what had happened, but finally decided to come forward “to correct this horrible mistake.”
She described how she was a witness in the long court process without legal representation or guidance and had to remind herself not to have any illusions, as there was a possibility that everything could go wrong.
“All he had was the truth and the knowledge that he was doing the right thing,” he told the court.
“You had the opportunity to prevent all of this by taking responsibility, but again you chose the hurtful path of deception … you rolled the dice at our expense and lost,” he told Hannon.
She said that during the court case there had been reference to the delay in showing up, but said that having gone through the trial process now, she knows they did the right thing and that her mother had protected her from the trauma of a court case as a child. .
“I will never forget what has been done to finally have justice, peace and closure,” he said.
In sentencing, Judge White said Hannon took on the brutal and cynical rape of an innocent child. It established a main sentence of 11 years.
He reduced it to seven after taking into consideration the fact that he had led a “constructive and exemplary life” since this crime.
Judge White paid tribute to the “exceptional courage” of the victim, who noted that he had to give testimony six times during the judicial process.
“She showed exceptional courage in the way she conducted herself during this process,” he said. He said the court was well aware that serious childhood sexual abuse affected a person throughout their life.
He congratulated the woman for conquering these problems and living a normal life.
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